Seattle bus shooter to police: ‘I wasn’t even aiming it at nobody’

Prosecutors file charges in alleged accidental shooting

Updated 12:39 pm, Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A Burien man accused of firing a pistol on a West Seattle-bound Metro bus has been charged with reckless endangerment and unlawful gun possession.

According to charging documents, David Dietrick was aboard the No. 125 bus trying to unload a cocked pistol in his backpack on May 19 when the gun fired. The 9 mm round ricocheted off the rear door, then hit another passenger in the leg.

It didn't cause a signficant injury

King County prosecutors contend Dietrick, 24, had been in a fight outside the McDonald’s restaurant at Third Avenue and Pine Street shortly before the shooting.

Dietrick allegedly told detectives he went home, armed himself and returned to the restaurant hoping to confront the man he’d been fighting. When he couldn’t find the other man, Dietrick boarded the No. 125 bus to return home.

After the gun went off, Dietrick and a woman who was traveling with him were arrested nearby after the driver stopped the bus. According to charging documents, Dietrick admitted to carrying the gun, which had been reported stolen.

“You need to let me go,” Dietrick allegedly told police. “I didn’t mean for the gun to go off. Look at the hole in the floor of the bus. I wasn’t even aiming it at nobody.”

Lamp noted that Dietrick, while in a holding cell, attempted to tell his female companion to admit to firing the gun.

“You fired the gun, it was not me,” Dietrick allegedly said. “You will be out in a week, you got no record.”

Dietrick was booked into jail on a Department of Corrections warrant. According to charging documents, Dietrick was sentenced to a three-year prison term following a robbery, but failed to report to prison.

Dietrick has been charged with unlawful gun possession and reckless endangerment. He remains jailed.